This month, we take a long look at the end of an era: the half-century when coal defined the energy economy of the West. Lights burned, rivers were diverted and subdivisions boomed, all thanks to coal. But as Jonathan Thompson explains in this month’s “Facts & Figures,” the “Big Buildup” is over, and what he calls “the Big Breakdown” is on. The transition will be felt across the West, from workers who need to find new jobs to communities whose longtime residents are leaving to find work.
A train loaded with coal travels through West Texas. Since its peak in 2007, coal use by U.S. power plants has dropped by half.
Today, the sage and sandstone of Wyoming’s vast Red Desert show little evidence of the coal-mining town of Dana, which once stood about 150 miles west of Cheyenne. No photos of Dana have ever been found, but in 1890 it probably looked much like southwestern Wyoming’s other Union Pacific Coal Company towns: a few boardinghouses, a company-contracted general store and just enough basic amenities to keep the town functioning. The main feature likely would have been the tipple, where coal was processed. Though largely forgotten, Dana was once home to a significant population of Black miners, originally recruited by a well-known Washington state politician and community leader, James E. Shepperson.